WHO announces Tedros Adhanom as sole candidate for next leadership

The World Health Organization has announced on Friday that its chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is the sole candidate for the next WHO leadership.

Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s who was elected to the WHO leadership in 2017 will have his current term expired in August 2022.

In 2017, the 56 year old Ethiopian became the first African national to head the powerful UN agency.

Tedros, who previously served as the former health and foreign affairs minister of Ethiopia, has been at the forefront of the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic as the head and public face of the WHO.

Although relatively popular due to his role in steering the organisation’s efforts to coordinate the pandemic response, his candidacy became complicated after his home country, Ethiopia, allegedly withdrew its support.

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Candidates for the UN health body’s top slot are generally nominated by their home countries but Tedros had attracted the ire of the Addis Ababa government by using the WHO platform to condemn the conflict in his home region of Tigray.

Tedros secured the backing of 28 countries, including France, Germany, Indonesia, the Netherlands and Spain, the WHO said.

The deadline for nominations passed on September 23. Countries submitted a sealed envelope to the Geneva-based WHO, which did not open them before October 1.

Member states will formally vote for the next head of WHO in a secret ballot in May during the World Health Assembly, the organisation’s main annual meeting of member states.